Jamikins, was Italy or Rome really crowded when you were there in September?

ttt for the weekday crowd

Just a big "THANK YOU" to everyone for all the help. You all are great!!!
Yes we do have passports as we were in Jamaica a few years ago and David's is good til March of "09" thank goodness then he'll be 16 and can get adult passport. I was hoping not to have to get another one for him as a minor.
I really appreciate all the help and well wishes. We are very excited and can't wait for July!

One of the considerations for what clothes to take to Europe is how easy they are to wash and dry. Especially in the summer when you get hot and sweaty walking around. On a tour you may not get an opportunity to go to a laundromat or even to leave your dirty clothes at a laundry. But even if you do, jeans are heavy to carry and hard to get dry. (Dryers in Europe are less efficient than those in the US.) Unless you have unlimited luggage and plan to bring 18 changes of clothing, it's better to bring lightweight clothing that can dry overnight after you wash it out by hand.

Also, unless at the beach, you will never see adult European males wearing shorts. A few tourists wear those long, past-the-knee shorts. So any shorts-wearing man will stick out as (north) American.

Last July we took our two kids (girl 13 and boy 17) on a Tour (not Globus though). Rest assured in July they will not be the only kids on the tour. On our tour of about 45 people, about 10 were kids and they all got along great.

The interesting thing was not one person out of the 45 on the "tour" had ever been on a tour before ~ which we all thought was very funny.

They were the craziest funniest bunch of characters I have ever met and we had the best vacation of our lives.

It was not "perfect" but it was so much fun.

Last July when we were in Italy, it was 115 degrees and Florence in particular was so hot.

Pack shorts for your son - he will melt in jeans if it is as hot this summer.

I wish I had packed more clothes - I wish we had 2 sets for every day (or at least 2 sets of underwear and top).

It would have been nice to change out of our SWEAT soaked clothes for dinner. At 7:30 in the morning it was already 85 degrees (maybe it was a heatwave, I don't know).

My kids loved that there was other kids on the tour and they were not stuck with their parents 24/7.

Originally I would say I was a travel snob about tours but with kids in the summer it was the BEST decision we ever made.

Hope you have a wonderful trip!

Sorry for the delay Marsh. Rome wasnt too busy in Sept. What I liked about it was that kids are back in school...so we didnt have to fight crowds of teenages. (boy, did I actually say that..I must be getting old hahahaha). We found it to be busy, but didnt stand in line for a large amount of time anywhere. It was amazing!

Hi Dorapet,

You are going to my favorite place in the world and I hope you love it! I have taken several tours and enjoyed them as much as independent tavel. They are just different. Sometimes it is great to relax and let someone else do the planning.

Here is my bit of advice and I hope it is of some value. I imagine you are already doing some of this just because you are interested, but my personal experience was that a lot of people I met on the tours did not do as much research as independent travelers usually do. They pretty much depended on the guides for information. Even with good guides, information is usually not very in-depth and it is hard to remember a lot by listening, especially in a group and moving around.

The more you can learn ahead of time about the places you will visit, the more meaningful the information by the guides will be. Reading/studying things that are anecdotal, like the competition between Brunelleschi and Ghiberti in Florence; or visual, like drawings of the interior construction of the dome on the duomo in Florence; or historical connections like the Pantheon to the Duomo to St. Peter's will enable you to look at things with more understanding and depth. Studying maps ahead of time will also give you more a sense of the places you visit.